Document automation for Salesforce · So in the narrow sense, document automation just means the...

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Document automation for Salesforce:Quick solution for faster sales

Whitepaperwww.documill.com


ContentsExecutive summary: document automation improves bottom line directly 3What is document automation? 4

Starting point: manual document creation 4Simple implementation for high quality and immediate returns 5Advanced solution for extra gains: adding workflow automation 7

Key benefits: increased productivity, transparency and control 9Users: focus on what really matters 9Salesforce administrators: gain empowerment and control 10Sales managers: higher team productivity and transparency 11

Increased security and compliance to meet stiffening regulations 12For Salesforce, but not just for sales 14

Sales Cloud 14Community Cloud 14Service Cloud 14Reporting 15

About Documill Dynamo 16Document generation by users 16User experience 17Template design 17

About Documill 17


Executive Summary: document automation improves bottom line directly

Salesforce provides a robust and continuously evolving cloud platform to support sales and other customer-facing activities.

Document automation applications available at Salesforce’s AppExchange application store complement the platform’s basic functionalities. They allow users to create documents automatically by populating document templates with content and dynamic data brought from Salesforce. Other data sources may also be supported.

Such solutions have a direct impact on the bottom line of companies’ business. In a 2015 IDC study1, 1,518 line-of-business leaders, IT leaders, and information workers in the world’s leading economies found that the benefits can amount to:

36% 30% 23%

Increase in revenue Reduction in cost Reduction in business/compliance risk

1 According to IDC study: ‘The Document Disconnect’ (2015)


What is document automation?Before exploring further, let us briefly look at what document automation means. First of all, at the core there is the basic functionality that allows just generating documents automatically. It is simple to deploy and typically provides immediate returns. Indeed, one of our customers achieved a full return on investment (ROI) for a sales team of 80 persons in just three months, which is a quite typical payback time.

But document automation provides also options for advanced functionalities that bring extra gains, that is, building workflows around documents to enable, say, automated circulation and quick document approval through full support for e-signing services.

Starting point - manual document creationSo in the narrow sense, document automation just means the automated creation of documents through the insertion of data from Salesforce on ready-made templates.

Without document automation, all that content should be created by a user manually step-by-step using an office application like MS Word. Then, the document would need to be circulated among contributors like marketing and legal teams and management, before sending to the

One of our customers achieved ROI in just three months.

The key sources for these benefits were acceleration of document creation, higher consistency and quality of documents, elimination of human errors, as well as better control and higher transparency of operations.

In this white paper, we look more closely into those benefits from the perspective of those workers, who gain the most from document automation.


Figure 1: Manual document process.

customer. The process is illustrated in Figure 1.

Simple implementation for high quality and immediate returns By deploying document automation just in its simplest form, companies can save much of the Salesforce users’ and administrators’ time. With the basic deployment, we mean simply the capability to generate documents with a click of a button on ready-made templates.

User Creates Document

Salesforce Data

Select template Add data & Content

Hone layout

Add Attachmentsto pdf

Merge PDFSend to customer

Archive in Salesforce

Manual Procedure

Check

Legal team MarketingManager

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Upon creation, those templates are populated with content stored in the Salesforce. The content can be:

• Structural parts of documents (i.e. elements) like paragraphs, headings, tables, images, links and spans. These can be static (always the same) or dynamic (changing according to pre-defined conditions)

• Dynamic data inserted in pre-defined fields in the body text of the template• Attachments, i.e. supplementary documents, attached to the main document as appendices.

Figure 2: Quick, simple implementation of document automation.

Archive in SalesforceManual Procedure

Automated Procedure

Admin designs template

Marketing pre-approves

Legal pre-approves

Manager Pre-approves

User generates Document

User generatesdocument

Ready-made template

Dynamo button in Salesforce

Manager approves

Customer revises/signs

Salesforce Data & Content


The same content can be reused across several different documents.

As a practical example, let us assume that a sales rep is working on an opportunity record on a potential customer. When she needs to produce a typical sales document for the customer, say a contract, she just needs to click a button on the Salesforce screen and the document is automatically generated using pre-existing document template, now populated with opportunity specific data.

After generating the contract, she may just save the document for future use, send it off for comments to other contributors or for approval via e-mail or Chatter. In advanced applications like Documill Dynamo, sharing of the document can be enabled by means of an action button in Salesforce, so the contributing user does not have to leave the application to send the document.

After approval, the document gets archived in Salesforce, where it is easy to trace later on.

The flow of the document is illustrated in Figure 2. In this example, a contract is first automatically generated, then manually sent off for internal approval and to be signed by a customer (via an e-signing solution if deployed). If the customer is happy with the document and signs it, it is sent back to the user and archived. If he is not, a new one is generated with the appropriate modifications.

Advanced solution for extra gains - adding workflow automationIn the previous example, there may still be manual work left to do, especially if the document is more complex. Data points not readily provided by Salesforce may have to be manually calculated and inserted in the document. A version in another language may have to be created separately. Attachments may have to be added manually. GET STARTED NOW WITH

DOCUMENT AUTOMATION






Figure 3: Advanced document-related workflow, now fully automated.

In these cases, advanced document automation can help a lot. It allows automating the overall workflow around the document circulation so that each user is guided to do the right thing. Additional manual work can be eliminated. Every action that takes place gets recorded. The result is improved control over and transparency to each and every step taken.

In practice, the workflow logic is implemented on the document templates. Figure 3 shows, how an advanced document automation implementation works.

Archive in Salesforce

Automated Procedure

Admin designs template

Marketing pre-approves

Legal pre-approves

Manager Pre-approves

User generates Document

User generatesdocument

Ready-made template

Dynamo button in Salesforce

Manager approves

Customer revises/signs

Salesforce Data & Content

Document automation frees users from their ties to their work desks.


And as we said above, such workflow design allows building whole automated business processes around documents. These are called document-driven processes and apart from document circulation, they can include advanced data processing and automation of various bulk actions. We will discuss them in more detail below.

Key benefits - increased productivity, transparency and control

When looking at the business benefits of document automation applications like Documill Dyna-mo, it quickly becomes obvious that they spread out in an organization beyond its actual users. In addition to increased team productivity, the Salesforce administrators and team managers usually benefit greatly from deploying a document automation solution.

Users: focus on what really mattersFor users, document automation brings the freedom of saved time, as they can create documents with just a click (if the administrator so allows) rather than through elaborate and error-prone manual work.

A 2015 study by Salesforce found that as much as 64% of the sales people’s time is spent on non-selling tasks. Producing documents is one time-consuming task that sales people must engage in, so introducing document automation can bring in a lot of added efficiency to a sales team.

If the document automation solution has a dedicated online editor for template creation and editing – as is the case with Documill Dynamo – document generation can be done completely using a web browser while staying in the familiar context of Salesforce user interface (UI). On a desktop or laptop computer, this makes things easier; on a handheld device, one could say that it

“As much as 64% of the sales peoples’ time is spent on non-selling tasks” – Salesforce study, 2015


makes serving any advanced document generation use cases possible in the first place.

All in all, document automation frees users from their ties to their work desks, so they can do business where the real action is – even more so if the document application supports integration with an e-signing solution (such as DocuSign or SignNow), like Documill Dynamo. Thus, getting documents like contracts ready for customer approval becomes easy, also on the move.

Salesforce administrators: gain empowerment and control More than any other workers, it is Salesforce administrators, who hold the key to reaping the full rewards out of the document automation.

With document automation tools like Documill Dynamo, they can do a lot to improve the productivity within a company, just by implementing basic automation through a simple installation procedure:

1. install the application 2. build the document template(s) using ready-made base templates and dragging and dropping

Salesforce fields on them3. adding a button for creating, saving and sending a document on the users’ Salesforce

interface.

What needs to be noticed is that with current technology, there is no need to tweak the Salesforce code or do elaborate programming upon implementation. With a simple deployment procedure, the administrators can do a lot by way of clarifying workers’ responsibilities, reducing their workload and improving co-operation. The administrators also gain better control through document processes, since when designing the template, they can define, in which ways the


users can edit the documents - if any.

And it doesn’t end there. In advanced implementations, the administrators can also create additional workflows on document templates for a variety of purposes:

• adding formulas on the template, so that new data points out can be calculated based on the existing ones in Salesforce

• on the fly document translation, to enable simultaneous production of a document to target groups that speak different languages

• quick approval processes, especially integration with e-signing solutions• granting tailored editing rights to users. So, automation can increase productivity and save time and effort substantially. But to what extent should it be deployed? That depends on the needs of the company. According to our experience, best results are achieved by introducing new workflows one by one, so that learnings accumulated along the way can be put to good use.

Sales managers: higher team productivity and transparency No doubt team managers will find it delightful that document automation boosts productivity and helps accelerate sales cycles. Also, management of teams becomes more effective as clearer visibility to operations is achieved, making it easier to identify and remove bottlenecks in processes.

With advanced workflow automation, errors that have occurred are also easier to trace back, identify, correct – and even eliminate from reoccurring by tweaking the workflow.

There are simple practical benefits, too: with proper e-signing solution integration, signing and

51% of the interviewees cited difficulty getting status and visibility into the document process.– IDC, 2015


approval of documents become much easier. Just a click or two are required for what used to require visiting a few separate applications – even printing out physical copies.

The 2015 IDC study1 mentioned before confirms that such improvements are really missed by the U.S. executives and managers in sales, human resources, procurement, legal, and other departments. Out of all 1518 interviewed line-of-business leaders, IT leaders and information workers:

• 51% cited difficulty getting status and visibility into the document process• 26% said getting documents routed, reviewed, and approved takes too long.

So documents become more easy to trace and find. This clearly makes business sense, since just finding all contracts made before seems to be a challenge for many businesses today, according to the study cited above. But in this era of stiffening regulations, the stakes are even higher, as we’ll explain in the next section.

The templates can also have multilingual support, which enables centralizing document management to one office in international organizations. It can be equally useful for businesses that operate in small markets like individual countries.

Increased security and compliance to meet stiffening regulations

Protecting company’s data is important, yet difficult. Just ensuring visibility to data transfer at all points and control over where it gets stored is a major challenge to companies these days. Even so, if we leave aside the oft-discussed threats caused by Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, increasing mobile phone usage and potential worker unaccountability.

A study conducted by Vanson Bourne for Apricorn found that of the companies they interviewed,

1 According to IDC study: ‘The Document Disconnect’ (2015)

26% of interviewees said getting documents routed, reviewed, and approved takes too long. – IDC, 2015


a whopping “38 percent say they have no control over where company data goes and where it is stored.” In the 2015 study cited earlier, IDC found that 83% of the interviewees could not tell whether documents have been received by the people they were sent to or reviewed/signed by the appropriate people.

And it is not just about companies’ own data, but the data on their customers: for example in the EU, the financial implications of data security will increase by mid-2018, when the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force. Fines of up to €20 million or 4 percent of global annual turnover will be introduced for improper handling of customer data.

In the financial sector, EU’s renewed Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) regulation will become effective starting from January 2018. It will require financial institutions to be capable of finding all documents related to a single transaction seven years backward.

So it literally pays to have the capability to find and control all that data.

All this is part of the global trend of stiffening regulation. But while the stakes are high, an advanced document automation application like Documill Dynamo can help in the following ways:• Salesforce data is under better control in user devices, since it is not being transferred to an

external application like MS Word - as is the case with automation applications without an online browser

• document output is in pdf format, with all inherent locking and encryption options of the format typically supported

• with automated document circulation workflows, every step that each document takes can be tracked afterward

• roles and data access privileges can be defined more clearly for all users, which limits unnecessary access to data and risk of leakage

38% say they have no control over where company data goes and where it is stored.” – Vanson Bourne, 2017


• Ensure compliancy with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) obligations for data subprocessor.

For Salesforce, but not just for sales

When Salesforce is mentioned, we instinctively tend to think sales teams as the platform’s primary users. And true, that is where Salesforce started from. However, after its initial success, it has expanded to new use cases through the introduction of dedicated platforms: Service Cloud for customer services, Marketing Cloud for companies’ promotional activities and so forth. Our experience covers document automation implementations in the three key Salesforce Clouds: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Community Cloud.

Sales CloudIn the Sales Cloud, the emphasis is typically on the generation of basic sales documents: customer presentations, proposals/offers, sales orders, agreements, contracts, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and customer onboarding documents.

Community CloudWhen implemented in the Community Cloud, a document automation application like Documill Dynamo allows customers and/or business partners to create documents like quotes and reports themselves.

Service CloudIn the Service Cloud, document automation can be of great help when producing, say, documents like audit reports and certificates to support the field services of manufacturing companies.

83% of the interviewees could not tell whether documents have been received or reviewed/signed by the appropriate people.” – IDC, 2015


ReportingIn all three clouds mentioned above, an advanced document automation application can also be harnessed for the production of various custom reports. A prerequisite is that the application has versatile capabilities for processing dynamic data, like Documill Dynamo has.

In case of the Sales Cloud, such custom reports can show the volume and value of potential sales opportunities, top-selling accounts that have open opportunities, lead response times, closed opportunities and their average and won versus lost opportunities.

In the Community Cloud, reports can be produced for customers on, say, availability of products offered, delivery times of orders and dates when supplies will be replenished.

In the Service Cloud, document automation is used for instance for generating audit reports on different industrial and other environments, equipment, processes and projects, to ensure that they comply with all relevant legal requirements.

ConclusionThe business benefits of deploying a document automation solution are undeniable. They extend far beyond the primary team of users to any of their collaborators and managers. They entail:

• higher productivity• higher document quality• simpler document administration• better visibility to operations• higher customer satisfaction• improved security and compliance.

While automated document generation is at the heart of document automation, the technology


can do much more, when logic-based workflows are added to document templates. This makes distributing, contributing to and approval of documents much simpler for the workers. Crucially, co-operation between workers can be boosted in strict adherence to the company’s business rules.

Best of all, document automation can be rolled out in a phased manner: for example, first just the document generation and simple circulation functions, then - if or when feasible - the workflow logic for boosted quality, document circulation, calculations, data transfer or production and delivery purposes. Indeed, we believe that a phased rollout is the best way for most businesses to maximize the returns it provides.

About Documill Dynamo

Documill Dynamo enables quick and easy generation of documents like offers, contracts and reports in Salesforce. For administrators, it allows rapid deployment, thanks to a quick installation procedure, an easy-to-use online user interface for template creation and a selection of ready-made quality templates available. No coding skills are required. Meanwhile, users can adopt it in an instance.

As an option, Documill Dynamo’s advanced workflow automation logic allows automation of complete processes built around documents. These add to the efficiency, transparency, security and compliance of processes. Documill Dynamo’s features include the following:

Document generation by users• Create documents with a single button click in Salesforce• Customize and edit predefined sections and attachments of documents • Drag and drop sections of predefined content to build the document on the fly• Track document versions

In EU, fines of up

to €20 M or

4% of global annual turnover will be introduced for improper control over customer data.”


User experience• Send documents via e-mail with a single click • Refresh Salesforce data while retaining customized text• Trigger next action: create or update Salesforce tasks & records, send for signing or

approval, update status or timestamp

Template design• Design templates with intuitive, browser-based tool• Use sample templates as basis for design (or create your own) • Drag and drop fields and line items into templates• Create advanced templates: add conditional text, images, tables (including nested tables),

SOQL queries, calculations & operators for data manipulation and sophisticated logic & scripts

• Reuse blocks of text across documents• Define fields and areas in the document that users can edit (if any)• Support multiple language variants with a single template• Combine multiple documents into one PDF• Create email templates with dynamic data from Salesforce• Control document administration and security

About DocumillWe are an independent software vendor (ISV), established in 1997 and based in Espoo, Finland. We offer you enterprise document processing solutions with leading user experience in the context of document discovery, automation and reuse. Our products are used by some of the world’s largest online service providers & enterprises. We are proud to be a five-star app on the Salesforce AppExchange for four years.

+358 50 408 [email protected]

Documill Finland HQTekniikantie 14 FI-01250 EspooFINLAND, EUROPE

Documill – UK Offices+44 (0) 203 189 [email protected]

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Document automation for Salesforce · So in the narrow sense, document automation just means the...

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